We are dull people at the Commission

Someone really needs to take the newish Chairman of the Productivity Commission, Peter Harris, aside and give him some frank advice.

In one of his first speeches, he told everyone that he was like the Bob the Builder …. pleeease. I would be hiding your involvement in MYKI, the Victorian desal plant and the NBN – all unmitigated disasters, Pete.

And then we have his speech notes (here’s a hint: there are some very able speech writers at the PC; it is not acceptable to put up speech notes on the PC website; Harris is destroying a fine tradition set by Gary Banks of posting important and polished speeches as a form of record) from a recent outing at the ANU:

We are dull people at the Commission. We like process. In that respect, I may be dullest of all – I’ve seen process and structure that works for major reform projects; and wonder if I will ever see it repeated again.

Hard not to disagree with one part … I may be the dullest of all. But ‘I’ve seen process and structure that works for major reform projects’ – really? really?

The Victorian desal plant was built at triple the efficient cost, was the mother of all union rorts and Victoria doesn’t even need it, although Victorians will pay for it for years and years because of the egregious take-or-pay contracts negotiated with the operator by senior Victorian public servants.

And here’s a bit more of a flavour of these ‘insightful’ (jibberish, more like it) notes from the Chairman’speech:

But until the Hilmer Review, we had no policy options of a traditional kind for dealing with the accreted problems of industries which ‑ through government regulation of entry or through direct government ownership ‑ controlled access to markets covering a larger part of the economy than that which was internationally exposed.

Not only was there a sense of inequity to that, but also a sense that greater burdens for the economy existed behind those walls than behind the walls of tariffs and quotas.

A sense, exposable by incident and example, but not able to be calculated in the precise way sought by some at the time.

Pressed to demonstrate the expected benefits in advance of the inquiry, we could only say it was hard to be sure.

Thus page 9.

But in this, as in the case of the internationally‑traded sector, the Industries Assistance Commission was also active.

The government needs to tread very carefully in sending too many inquiries and research projects to the PC – it is not the organisation it once was.

I look forward to ACCC style activity along the lines of “words mean what we want them to mean.”
Let’s balance productivity against all the other policy considerations because government, controlled as it is by the IPA, obviously 0an’t do that. And if a company is doing something good for the public, let’s call it a “public good” and then get upset that the company is allowed to do it without state interference.

It’s Scales’ eyesight and not Peter Harris that must do the lifting if we are to recognise the full nightmare of the NBN.
The decision not to use packet-switching in the ‘last mile’ is the real disaster. That failure ensured that a major part of the network is not scalable and is effectively obsolete, even at the start of the rollout.

The fact that the Vic Coalition govt hardly ever mentions it anymore shows one reason why they’re tanking in the polls against a complete bunch of morons in the opposition.

It’s just unbelievable. The joint needs an acid bath.

$6 billion dollar build. Almost $30 billion payback over 3 decades. Any Victorian in their 30s with a newborn should look in their infant’s eyes and think “when you get to my age you’ll still be paying it back.” The plant keeps churning away regardless, burning power by the megawatt. Around $2 million per day doled out to the operator, which is ultimately owned by big union super funds. Built because Victoria’s long gone drought was “the new normal” all due to global warming. AND NOT A SINGLE USEFUL LITRE YET PRODUCED.

Finally, the biggest outrage of all: nobody has been jailed or even reprimanded yet.

The Victoriastan de-sal costs extended even beyond the eye watering direct costs. Thanks to the union friendly IR environment, wage rates and allowances from the feather bedded site spread through other EBAs like the cancer that is Victoriastan Labor.

It is a tribute to the inherent Left leaning Victorians and the piss weak Liberals that they look like losing government after one term that no-one expected them to win anyway. Great job.

We need to make ALL polies and public “servants” fiscally responsabile fi their actions ,these massive spending projects were done without the permission of the Tavpxpayers ,every one involved should lose their homes ,savings and super. And the assets of their families ,if they cannot prove they earned them ,( look at the wife and family of the alp criminal williamson? The Bastard ROBS the workers and his wife gets a huge super payout! Come on Confiscate the super,the house and every cent the williamsons posess ,and let the Theiving Mongrels get Real Jobs ,cleaning Shi–y beds and clothes in a hospital for minimum wages !

Thanks, Dr Sloan. I have been waiting for your assessment of the chairman.
Considering his background and the circumstances of his appointment, your comments were not unexpected.
They were, however, disappointing considering a similar decline in the Treasury’s firepower.
What is to become of the PC’s staff?
So, we are left with the Reserve Bank …

I am not a great quoter of Kennett, but he has a point in relation to this Government.
When you know you are going to win, you must have everything in place and hit the ground running. Otherwise, you hand the initiative to the opposition who simply whittle away your plans while you fumble around getting things in place.
His point is correct. Why are they still developing terms of reference for these myriad inquiries – why were they not ready to go in September.
The problem with inquiries is that they produce reports, and reports leave you vulnerable – unless you employ the Labor tactic of never releasing them.
The most obvious stupidity is taking IR reform to the next election. “Hey enemy, we are going to attack you”. “It will occur on 14 Nov 1916.” “In the meantime, please do not do anything to disrupt our plans”.
We have elected a bunch of victims of CRM and workplace harmony seminars.

Someone really needs to take the newish Chairman of the Productivity Commission, Peter Harris, aside and give him some frank advice.

My advice:

You are full of shit. You are a phoney. You are a failure. You are being rewarded for failure. Hand back your qualifications and retire without a pension, Harris. Pay back the good people your salary earnt on the NBN and desal plant, you reprehensible swine.

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Liberty Quotes

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.— G. Gordon Liddy